Upcoming Telebriefings

Ethernet Wide-Area Networks

Network and Telecom Strategies

2/9/2010 and 2/10/2010

WAN services that mimic Ethernet are starting to become popular. They promise simplified architectural integration into enterprise networks, high bandwidth, low cost, QoS, and flexible, easy provisioning. Although their technical underpinnings are considerably different from LAN Ethernet, are not universally available, and are still being developed and standardized, the "Carrier Ethernet" or "Ethernet WAN" services have the same interface as LAN-based Ethernet. This TeleBriefing, by Senior Burton Group Analyst Eric Siegel, therefore looks at this new service and its underlying technology to give architects a basis for technical comparisons between it and legacy WAN services.

Threat Assessment Guidance for Dangerous Times

Security and Risk Management Strategies

2/17/2010 and 2/18/2010

Organizations face a dangerous threat landscape, with more types of attackers conducting more sophisticated attacks blending social engineering, hacking, malware, and other exploits. Organizations need to do a better job of assessing threats and developing defensive strategies. Burton Group Principal Analyst Dan Blum will provide guidance on developing a threat assessment strategy and factoring threat intelligence into protection programs to avoid common mistakes and gain ground against adversaries. He will also convene a small panel of experts to discuss threat assessment and the recent "Operation Aurora" attacks that reportedly compromised multiple corporate networks, including Google's.

Slides for this TeleBriefing will be available the day before the TeleBriefing is held.

Developing Enterprise Rich Mobile Applications

Application Platform Strategies

3/2/2010 and 3/3/2010

The past two years has shown a meteoric rise in the popularity of the smartphone. Today, there is growing demand for organizations to develop rich mobile applications for their employees and their customers, giving access to key information and services at the moment of inspiration. Unfortunately, the smartphone market is complex, with a dizzying array of platform options. In this TeleBriefing, Analyst Kirk Knoernschild explores the rich mobile application platform market, and discusses the options available for developing rich mobile applications.

Slides for this TeleBriefing will be available the day before the TeleBriefing is held.

Previous Telebriefings

The Future of Identity Management is Pull

Identity and Privacy Strategies

February, 2010 -- For a decade, the identity management architecture has consisted of an enterprise directory, a provisioning engine, a set of metadirectory connectors, and a web access management system. This architecture was well-suited to creating, managing, and using enterprise identities for full-time employees. But several forces are changing this architecture. Requirements to let non-employees access enterprise resources have given rise to federation technology, which lets identities created elsewhere into the enterprise. And cheap consumer identity providers (traditionally webmail or social network operators, but increasingly born-on-the web identity services specialist firms) are offering low-assurance identities at a fraction of the cost of enterprise IDs – thus converting the identity landscape into a free market in which cheap, weak identities compete against expensive strong ones. These shifts in the identity landscape will revolutionize the enterprise identity management architecture over the next three to five years. In this TeleBriefing, IdPS Service Director Gerry Gebel and IdPS Research Director Bob Blakley will discuss the coming changes in IdM architecture and discuss steps enterprises can take to future-proof their IdM roadmaps.

Two Cheers for Agile Data Modeling - An Open-Minded Perspective From a Confirmed "Data Bigot"

Data Management Strategies

January, 2010 -- Burton Group Senior Analyst Joe Maguire assesses Agile Data Modeling, with surprising results. Like other data-modeling thought leaders and practitioners, Mr. Maguire agrees that Agile Data Modeling “goes too far” in applying certain Agile Principles. However, he also describes how Agile Data Modeling can be improved by going even further—by more aggressively honoring other Agile Principles. He also points out how the designers of Agile Data Modeling overlook the gravest shortcomings of conventional data modeling, and consequently propagate those shortcomings into Agile Data Modeling. Mr. Maguire includes practical advice about modeling in any environment, Agile or otherwise.

Building a Data Center Cost Model

Data Center Strategies

January, 2010 -- IT decisions about how and where to host applications and what to set as a departmental chargeback are increasingly influenced by the costs associated with delivering the service. Unfortunately, many IT organizations are hamstrung by a lack of detailed knowledge about costs associated with existing applications and hosting practices. Without that knowledge IT organizations are left to make economic decisions based on gut instinct rather than solid data. In this TeleBriefing, Burton Group Senior Analyst Nik Simpson examines the issue of building a cost model for the data center.

"Transitioning" to Exchange 2010: Is It Worth the Effort?

Collaboration and Content Strategies

January, 2010 -- A challenge for Microsoft with the Exchange 2010 release is to convince customers that it does something new enough to “transition.” Moving to Exchange 2010 is not an in-place upgrade. It is a transition — making the move more expensive and complex for the enterprise. Microsoft also focused much of the development of Exchange 2010 to rebuild it for software-as-a-service Exchange Online offerings. Therefore, what does Exchange 2010 offer to the enterprise that justifies the transition? In this TeleBriefing, Analyst Bill Pray reviews Exchange 2010 and provides insight into the business case for and against upgrading to Exchange 2010.

BPM Infrastructure: Crossing The Adoption Chasm?

Application Platform Strategies

December, 2009 -- Organizations are still buying BPM infrastructure in2009, even as the recession has made companies more careful about IT spending. BPM programs have matured to demand BPM infrastructure that handles different process types and lifecycle phases seamlessly. In this TeleBriefing, analyst Richard Watson defines BPM and the BPM Infrastructure market, segments the densely populated, product landscape, and discusses the many business drivers pushing customers to become process-oriented. Given those compelling drivers, and the evangelism of the market participants, the question remains why BPM remains a niche discipline, executed in enclaves. Richard identifies the barriers that prevent vendors in the market and their customers from achieving more mainstream adoption.

Information-Centric Security: What Are the Essential Elements?

Security and Risk Management Strategies

December, 2009 -- Modern IT is blessed (or plagued) with several new realities. Increasingly, users expect to have more control of information and technology; they want to employ their own, highly mobile devices for access; and management continues to increase the pressure to lower costs through outsourcing and cloud services. Many security teams realize these trends affect how data is protected. Rather than focus on infrastructure, they must focus on information itself--wherever it goes, and for whomever uses it. This panel discussion will bring together several Burton Group clients across multiple industry segments. These leaders will describe their recipes for information-centric security--whether classification, leakage prevention, data discovery, increased encryption, or other approaches--and where they've found success or pitfalls.

Mobile UC: Vendor Hype or Essential Tool?

Network and Telecom Strategies

December, 2009 -- Mobile unified communications (UC) products and services offer enterprises the ability to integrate mobile phones with their Internet Protocol telephony (IPT) and UC systems. These solutions give employees the ability to enjoy many of the same features on their mobile phones that previously were only available on desktop phones and soft phones. Over time, mobile UC will become a standard feature of enterprise IPT/UC systems. In this TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Paul DeBeasi will analyze the various Mobile UC products and services.

Identity and Access Governance: The Latest IdM Market Disrupter

Identity and Privacy Strategies

November, 2009 -- One of the more disruptive developments in the IdM marketplace is the emergence of identity and access governance as its own discipline – separate from run-time functions such as user provisioning and authorization services. Initially positioned as features closely aligned with provisioning products, functionality such as access review and certification, management of entitlements, role management, access request services, and advanced reporting/dashboard capabilities are now available in governance tools that are designed for a business audience. In this TeleBriefing, Burton Group analysts Mark Diodati, Ian Glazer, and Gerry Gebel will discuss conditions leading to the formulation of this IdM market segment and review capabilities of vendors and products currently available.

Cloud Databases - Structure in a Nebulous World

Data Management Strategies

November, 2009 -- The cloud database market is a work in progress for all providers with two models emerging – Platform as a Service (Paas) and Software Infrastructure as a Service (SIaaS). These two models have very different functionality and organizations should look very carefully at the data processing requirements of their applications before deciding to deploy. In this telebriefing, Senior Analyst Marcus Collins outlines the applicable use cases, strengths and weaknesses of the differing cloud database models and compares the various offerings that are available today.

Windows 7 Virtualization Features: Good News or Bad News?

Data Center Strategies

November, 2009 -- Numerous desktop virtualization features are included with the Windows 7 OS Professional and Ultimate editions. Features such as Windows XP Mode and native virtual hard disk support provide new levels of flexibility, but also bring additional management challenges. In this Burton Group TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Chris Wolf details Windows 7's native virtualization features, highlights the new management requirements and pitfalls they create, and offers recommendations with regards to feature selection, planning, and implementation.

Agile Architecture

Application Platform Strategies

November, 2009 -- Despite our wishing it were so, software architecture is not static throughout a project. Agile architecture is defined by our willingness and ability to embrace and accommodate architectural shifts that occur during a project. Agile architecture issues are both temporal—when to make architectural decisions—and structural, demanding that the architect and architecture remain flexible and able to accommodate change. In this Burton Group TeleBriefing, Analyst Kirk Knoernschild explains the principles of agile architecture, and explores the inextricable link between the temporal and structural decisions that impact architectural agility. Join with Kirk to discover new ways to approach software architecture.

Leveraging Relationships and Managing Identity – Two Sides of the Social Networking Coin

Collaboration and Content Strategies

October, 2009 -- Use of social networking to improve information sharing and community-building will transform how organizations think about identity and its relation collaboration and social media strategies. Social network sites, micro-blogging, activity streams, blogs, and wikis enable employees to construct their own identities via profiles and social graphs. As employee participate and contribute in these social networking environments, internally or externally, they also establish social roles and community reputations. This TeleBriefing by analyst Mike Gotta and consultant Alice Wang will examine the risks and benefits of more open and transparent information sharing on collaboration and identity strategies.

Endpoint Virtualization Approaches and Security Considerations

Security and Risk Management Strategies

October, 2009 -- Organizations have long struggled to deploy locked down desktops to their full time workforce members but have experienced mixed success due to user experience challenges. With the "externalization of IT", security departments are also seeing the numbers and varieties of unmanaged desktops increase. Consumerization is yet another trend poised to drive a nail in the coffin of control...or is it? This session will analyze the benefits, limitations, architectures, and residual risks of the various endpoint virtualization approaches. In the TeleBriefing, Principal Analyst Dan Blum will present Burton Group's research on the security considerations for multiple endpoint virtualization approaches: presentation virtualization, application virtualization, and full desktop virtualization. After the presentation, a panel of Burton Group analysts will disucss the issues and take questions from the audience.

NTS Planning Guide

Network and Telecom Strategies

October, 2009 -- Enterprise networks are increasingly being shaped by developments in consumer/residential, video, and wireless networking. In this TeleBriefing, the Network and Telecom Strategies team summarizes how developments in wide area networks, site and data center networking, wireless and mobility, voice and real-time communications will influence the future of enterprise networks.

Markets Colliding: UNIX Security, Active Directory Bridge, and Privileged Account Management

Identity and Privacy Strategies

September, 2009 -- In this TeleBriefing, IdPS Senior Analyst Mark Diodati discusses the rapid convergence of "classic" UNIX security, AD Bridge, and privileged account management products. Each product type is a crucial component for solving authentication, privilege, compliance, and (potentially) provisioning challenges. The products are synergistic when combined together. In addition to surveying the vendors, products, and capabilities, he will also make recommendations for successful product selection and deployment.

Amazon EC2: Is it Ready for the Enterprise?

Data Center Strategies

September, 2009 -- Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is an iconic product. It’s ease-of-use and unique business model has defined cloud computing. Although EC2 is an easy-to-use general purpose virtual compute platform, IT organizations are asking whether EC2, and its associated services, have enterprise capabilities that many applications require. In this Burton Group TeleBriefing, Research Director Drue Reeves will examine EC2’s availability, scalability, performance and security to determine enterprise application readiness.

Vendor Management in the Clouds - Ideas for Any Economic Climate

Executive Advisory Program

September, 2009 -- Join CIO Executive strategist Jack Santos as he discusses vendor management strategies with licensing expert Ania Levy of Levy Legette and Burton Group specialist Kim May.

An expense strategy that works regardless of economic climate (good or bad) coupled with a growth in cloud-based IT makes supplier relationship skills a core competency for IT departments. Meanwhile, software vendors continue to make the licensing process unnecessarily complex, and both parties lack the lessons of experience to police and administer agreements. Our Guest's extensive experience with vendor negotiation, contract review, and software licensing will enable them to share with us their insights into the world of vendor and contract management.

Market Insight: Productivity Suites 2009

Collaboration and Content Strategies

September, 2009 -- After years of quiet, the productivity suite market is going through a rebirth, bolstered by new competitors (e.g., Google, IBM, ThinkFree, and Zoho), more price points (from free to several hundred dollars per user), more delivery models (e.g., software, SaaS, and software/SaaS), and a broader vision of functionality (content sharing and collaboration). In this TeleBriefing, Research Director Guy Creese rates vendor capabilities as well as their strategy and vision, delivering a market quadrant that will help enterprises understand their productivity suite options.

Application Governance

Application Platform Strategies

September, 2009 -- Applications governance is terribly misunderstood, yet critical. Chronic IT problems like perpetual complaints about applications, portfolio bloat, and outsourcing are applications governance matters. Platform configuration, IoC, SoC, MVC, and BPM, although commonly called governance, are not. To learn the difference, ask executives about these things. When they scowl, you will know. Applications governance is board of directors and top executive duty. It concerns decision-making authorities for business’s most important applications matters (e.g., infrastructure spending). Therefore, governance is top down, not bottom up. In this Burton Group TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Joe Bugajski explains applications governance and how it works.

Electric Utility Cyber Security Standards: Practical Implementation Guidance

Security and Risk Management Strategies

August, 2009 -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) continue to place great emphasis on complying with the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) mandates. By July 2009, energy company owners and operators were required to comply with specific CIP requirements to safeguard critical cyber assets or face very significant fines. In this TeleBriefing, Doug Simmons, Burton Group's Vice President of Consulting, along with Burton Group Consultants Ken Agress, Kim May and Bob Smock will share insights on how utilities can plan and design their IT infrastructure from both strategic and tactical standpoints in order to better meet the CIP requirements.

Cost-Effective Telecom: Potential Savings Areas

Network and Telecom Strategies

August, 2009 -- In these challenging economic times, everyone is looking for ways to save money, improve efficiency, and reduce wasteful spending. This particularly applies to telecommunications, as it often represents the largest recurring IT expense outside of employee salaries; small changes to network and telecom services may therefore have a large potential cost impact. In this TeleBriefing, NTS Research Director Dave Passmore will suggest areas where enterprise network managers should examine their use of telecom-related services -- with the goal of cost-avoidance or savings while still meeting enterprise business requirements.

Partnering via Privacy

Identity and Privacy Strategies

August, 2009 -- Insufficient privacy practices not only put your enterprise at risk, they also put your enterprise’s partners at risk. Knowing this, enterprises are examining the privacy practices of their partners with greater scrutiny in order to mitigate concerns and potential liabilities. The savvy enterprise can use its privacy principles and practices not only to meet partner concerns, limit potential liabilities, but also as a competitive advantage. Issues this Burton POV will address include: * What privacy teams are looking for in potential partners * What privacy teams are being asked to demonstrate * The need for privacy intermediaries

The Chicken or the Egg: Information Lifecycle Management or Enterprise Data Management?

Data Management Strategies

August, 2009 -- The data universe is expanding exponentially with an expected 998 exabytes of data to be produced in 2010 alone, six times more data than produced in 2006. Furthermore, research shows that up to 80% of data within organizations may be inactive. Organizations drowning in data are turning to Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) as a way to control the size of their data footprint so they can more easily find, protect, consolidate, and manage their information. Yet ILM is not enough. Companies need to buttress ILM with solid data management practices. Research Analyst Noreen Kendle will talk about the not well understood synergy between ILM and data management, discussing: *What is data management and ILM? *Why data management requires ILM---and vice versa *How the two together help an organization better manage data at a lower cost

The New Sun Under Oracle: What Does It Mean to You?

Data Center Strategies

July, 2009 -- Sun Microsystem's market decline since the dot-COM bust has been cause for concern among Sun customers. The global recession has driven Sun further into its market woes forcing it to seek alternatives to avoid collapse. Now, unless extraordinary events arise during the Oracle-SUN Security and Exchange Commission regulatory period, Sun customers will find their technology provider under new Oracle leadership. In this TeleBriefing, Service Director Richard Jones and Senior Analyst Nik Simpson will outline the most probable future for each Sun product and technology under its new Oracle leadership and will offer insights into what you should be doing to prepare for the changes to come.

The Burton Group Guide to Saving Money On Communication, Collaboration, and Content Technology

Collaboration and Content Strategies

July, 2009 -- With the economy in recession, enterprise IT departments face pressure to trim their budgets and abandon some of what they wanted to accomplish. Cost cutting has a particularly hard impact on teams that are maintaining or seeking additional investments in communication, collaboration, and content management (3C) technology, given that their contributions to the bottom line are often indirect while their costs are easily quantifiable. This TeleBriefing with analysts Larry Cannell, Guy Creese, Bill Pray, and Craig Roth will describe where cost savings can be found with existing 3C infrastructure as well as how to meet new 3C needs with tighter budgets.

Platform as a Service: Application Platform Metamorphosis

Application Platform Strategies

June, 2009 -- Prior computing epochs created seismic shifts in application development technologies and design patterns. To maximize Cloud Computing benefits, platform capabilities must evolve. In this session, Burton Group VP and Service Director Chris Haddad and Analyst Richard Watson will outline current Application Platform limitations, define Platform as a Service (PaaS) capabilities, and match PaaS offerings with today's demanding business requirements. The session will include recommendations on how to:

• Define next-generation platform requirements
• Make a business case for Platform as a Service
• Evaluate Platform as a Service offerings

What the Future Holds: Looking at Trends in Security for the Second half of 2009 and 2010

Security and Risk Management Strategies

June, 2009 -- As the calendar moves into summer, security teams are already beginning to think about planning for 2010. It is hard to know how to plan for something six months away when the economy is so uncertain. This TeleBriefing will examine IT (and non-IT) trends that affect security planning and then dive into specific technology and market trends in network, application, content, and host security.

Cost Savings Through WAN Optimization

Network and Telecom Strategies

June, 2009 -- Performance over the WAN can be massively improved by advanced compression and protocol acceleration. Bandwidth savings of 50% or more and massive performance improvements are common. With the pressure on IT budgets and the drive to centralize servers, it is a perfect time to look at these technologies, which often pay for themselves in under a year and require no changes to applications. This TeleBriefing by Senior Analyst Eric Siegel looks at the technologies and products, then gives practical advice, based on extensive interviews with Burton Group clients and others, about how to sell the project to management, evaluate products, and run a trouble-free implementation.

Outsiders Have Broken Through the Gate: Managing Contractor Access

Identity and Privacy Strategies

June, 2009 -- Contractors, contingency workers, and other non-employees are a growing segment of the typical workforce – placing significant access management pressure on human resources and IT departments alike. Most organizations have reasonably good procedures for handling full time employees, but business processes often break down when it comes to non-employees. In this TeleBriefing, research director Bob Blakley, service director Gerry Gebel, and senior analyst Lori Rowland will discuss common issues and challenges, best practices gleaned from interviews with enterprises, as well as third party services options.

Realizing the Benefits of the Business Intelligence Investment

Data Management Strategies

June, 2009 -- Business Intelligence projects have the perception of being complex and costly endeavors that rarely deliver the business value they initially promised. But the “fact-based” decision making that business intelligence enables is vital to the success of organizations in the current economic and highly competitive climate. What is required for business intelligence to be successful is a clearly defined process to reliably deliver business value; an understanding of what the IT department’s role in this initiative should be and a realization that business intelligence should be used as an aid to the decision making process.

Hypervisor Competitive Differences: Beyond the Data Sheet

Data Center Strategies

May, 2009 -- In this TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Chris Wolf dissects the competitive differences that exist with today's leading hypervisors, with a special focus on the under-the-hood features that don't make it onto vendor data sheets. Attendees of this TeleBriefing will see firsthand the differences that exist with all major virtualization hypervisor vendors (e.g. VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, and Virtual Iron) and will leave with a list of pointed questions to ask prospective hypervisor vendors regarding their current solutions and future plans. Information presented in this TeleBriefing includes:

Server virtualization hypervisor feature lists that can be used to create RFP documents.

Details that differentiate data sheet marketing checkboxes from production-ready feature implementations.

Examples of product shortcomings and vendor feature misrepresentations.

Enterprise Twitter: Fad Or Tipping Point?

Collaboration and Content Strategies

May, 2009 -- Social messaging, sometimes referred to as micro-blogging, has become incredibly popular on the Internet, exemplified by soaring use of consumer services such as Twitter. Twitter’s growing audience has raised questions as to whether such communication models are applicable within the enterprise. Strategists are considering social messaging as a means to improve not only information sharing and collaboration but also facilitate social networking and community building. There are concerns however. How does social messaging conflict with ongoing unified communications efforts (e.g., instant messaging)? What level of security and compliance requirements are there for these tools? Join Principal Analyst Mike Gotta of Burton Group along with CEO Tim Young of Socialcast, and CEO David Sacks of Yammer, as they discuss all of these topics and address questions from audience participants.

Catalyst Preview: Whither SOA: What’s Next?

Application Platform Strategies

May, 2009 -- The demise of SOA is tragic. But, enough mourning! Organizations still desperately need to make architectural improvements to their application portfolios. Service-orientation is still a prerequisite for rapid integration of data and business processes and for simplification of the IT environment; and it’s a foundational architecture for any externalization of IT such as SaaS and cloud computing. So, why is service modeling so neglected for more technical architecture activities? In this TeleBriefing, Analyst Richard Watson previews this essential half-day topic from the 2009 Catalyst conference in San Diego, 27-31 July.

Cloud Computing - An Introduction Event

Cloud Computing

May, 2009 -- What is cloud computing? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Is it safe to use? What are the usage and pricing models? Is this hype or can this help my business? Join Jamie Lewis, CEO and Research Chair, and Drue Reeves, VP and Research Director, as they describe Burton Group's latest coverage area: Cloud Computing. Attendees will gain a strong foundational understanding of cloud computing, plus learn how to take advantage of Burton Group's research and advisory services for all of their cloud needs.

The Building Security in Maturity Model (BSIMM) and your Software Security Program

Security and Risk Management Strategies

May, 2009 -- Developed by Fortify and Cigital, the Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM) is meant as a guide for building and evolving a software security initiative. Based on a study of nine large enterprise software security programs (including those of Adobe, Depository Trust Clearing Corporation [DTCC], EMC, Google, Microsoft, QUALCOMM, and Wells Fargo) it identifies key software security roles, 110 activities in twelve practices, as well as the ten core activities that all programs studied carry out. Citigal's Sammy Migues will join analysts Ramon Krikken (SRMS) and Kirk Knoernschild (APS) to discuss the model, and how it fits security and development practices in other enterprises.

Business Continuity and Roles: Getting More Business Value from Identity Management

Identity and Privacy Strategies

April, 2009 -- In the upcoming perspective document “Roles and Business Continuity: A Fertile Exchange,” Burton Group explores the challenges of identity management, business continuity, and identifies how roles could be used to demonstrate business alignment. In this interactive discussion, Alice Kaltenmark, Reed Elsevier Service Continuity Manager and Kevin Kampman, Burton Group Senior Analyst, will discuss how to effectively communicate the business value of identity management and business continuity planning to business management. They will address challenges such as attestation and compliance, privileges and entitlements, relationships and responsibilities, incident management, and identifying the overlap between people, business continuity, and strategic goals.

Mobile Handheld Policies: Permissive or Restrictive?

Network and Telecom Strategies

April, 2009 -- Mobile devices like smartphones are essential to today’s dynamic enterprise. However, their small size and portability makes them tempting targets for theft. Enterprises recognize that the information on these devices is more valuable than the hardware and software that make them work. As a result, most companies have security policies that dictate the type of device and the methods for connecting to enterprise IT resources. However, these policies create friction between IT and employees who wish to take advantage of newer technologies, such as the iPhone. In this TeleBriefing, Service Director Michael Disabato examines these polices and suggests alternatives.

A Case Study in Bridging Silos, using MODS (the Methodology for Overcoming Data Silos)

Data Management Strategies

April, 2009 -- Eliminating silos has proven to be an intractable problem. SOA is an effort to eliminate process silos, but this effort has stalled, largely because of the difficulties inherent in process integration. Enterprise-wide applications are an effort to subsume small silos into big ones, which in actual practice complicates the problem of silos. A newly proven approach is to reconcile the data between the silos – make data consistent so that data flows smoothly between silos. In this TeleBriefing, DMS Research Director Lyn Robison presents a case study in bridging silos successfully.

Reducing the Footprint of Data Using Data Deduplication

Data Center Strategies

April, 2009 -- The efficient storage of data is of increasing concern to administrators as primary, backup, and archival data grows. While many technologies and methodologies exist for improving storage efficiency, data deduplication stands out as one of the most effective. The application of deduplication technologies enhances the efficient use of storage equipment – a crucial benefit considering the current economic conditions. Selecting deduplication architectures and resultant implementations from the many available possibilities can be challenging. In this Data Center Strategies TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Gene Ruth explores deduplication technologies, architectures, and their application to help administrators select a solution that is suitable to their unique requirements.

Open Source Communication, Collaboration, and Content Management: Cutting-Edge Innovation, Low-Cost Imitation, or Both?

Collaboration and Content Strategies

March, 2009 -- Open source software is moving up the enterprise stack to provide communication, collaboration, and content management (3C) solutions. Among several factors, the combination of well-executed open source projects and inexpensive Internet services is fueling the development of cutting-edge and low-cost solutions that are scalable and robust, and which operate websites and services used by millions on the Internet. In this Burton Group TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Larry Cannell provides insight into what is driving the development of open source 3C and how enterprises should approach its use.

Data Leakage Prevention, Information Labeling and Access Control

Security and Risk Management Strategies

March, 2009 -- Data leakage prevention (DLP) and DLP tools are rising fast on the corporate radar as a means to discover locations of sensitive information. This awareness aids enterprises in classifying information (i.e., labeling). Bridging this awareness to the ability to provide access control consistent with workers' roles in the organization remains a major challenge. In this TeleBriefing, Doug Simmons, Burton Group's Vice President of Consulting will share insight on what customers and vendors are doing to bridge that gap.

Cloud Application Architecture: Re-Building Applications for the Cloud

Application Platform Strategies

March, 2009 -- The Cloud promises to bring infinite scalability, unlimited availability, and increased responsiveness. Can applications realize cloud benefits through a simple off-premise server migration? Does Cloud require developers to re-write applications or port applications to proprietary Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments? In this presentation, Chris Haddad, Vice President of Burton Group’s Application Platform team, will detail cloud application architecture patterns, cloud application frameworks, portability and migration strategies, and deployment topology considerations. The session will answer the following questions:

• How does Cloud Application Architecture compare to web application, client-server, and desktop architectures?
• When is Cloud Application Architecture the appropriate choice?
• What application frameworks and development environments should teams use to build Cloud applications?
• What architecture roadmap should be chosen to make applications Cloud ready?

Network Behavior Analysis

Security and Risk Management Strategies

March, 2009 -- Monitoring activity on our networks is something every enterprise needs to do. Network behavior analysis moves beyond looking for known bad signatures of attacks and into the realm of understanding what is happening on the network from day to day. While NBA is not a complete replacement for signature-based intrusion detection or prevention systems, it can augment them to provide a more complete view of the network. NBA technology is not just a security tool - networking teams can also benefit from the use of NBA to analyze how systems and applications are used and to assist in troubleshooting.

Mobile Phone Service Futures: Femtocells or WLANs?

Network and Telecom Strategies

March, 2009 -- Proponents of “fixed mobile convergence” (FMC) sometimes tout the future ability of mobile phone users to seamlessly roam between mobile/cellular operator networks and wireless LANs. This promises to save money, improve operator spectrum use, and improve reception within offices and homes. But such FMC requires that mobile phones include WLAN capabilities, and that WLANs possess service quality good enough for VoIP. So as a WLAN-free alternative, several vendors and mobile operators are beginning to offer “femtocells” – small cellular base stations that businesses or residential users can deploy in-building, and that can leverage wireline Internet broadband connections for backhaul. In this TeleBriefing, Research Director Dave Passmore will examine the pros, cons, and implications of femtocells vs. WLAN use by mobile phones.

Provisioning Market Landscape 2009: What's Hot and What's Not?

Identity and Privacy Strategies

March, 2009 -- Today's headlines are scattered with announcements of mergers and acquisitions, reductions in workforce, and organizational failures. As a result provisioning solutions have once again taken center stage; never has the need for a provisioning solution been more profound. In this TeleBriefing, Senior Analyst Lori Rowland will discuss the provisioning market landscape and reveal the results of Burton Group’s recent competitive analysis. She will also be providing insight into technology trends and customer experiences and making suggestions on how organizations can realize a greater return on their provisioning investment.

It's All About The Data

Data Management Strategies

February, 2009 -- Data is a mess and getting worse. Our approach to data is just not working. As Einstein said “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” It is time to step back and take a different look at data, a much broader look. We need to change our thinking about data in order to take a different approach to its management and get the data right. In this TeleBriefing, Burton Group Analyst Noreen Kendle presents an insightful perspective on data, outside the limited view of technology.

Demystifying the Cloud: Introduction to the Cloud Tiered Architecture

Data Center Strategies

February, 2009 -- Cloud computing is changing the economics of IT. Many organizations look to the cloud as a potential cost-savings boon by moving internally hosted IT services to external hosting providers. Other IT organizations view the cloud as a potential disaster recovery plan or as on-demand capacity to boost business continuity and customer service levels. But cloud computing suffers from confusion and hype. Multiple definitions, competing vendor offerings, undefined risks, and new business models obscure cloud computing, slowing down adoption. Insightful IT organizations are taking a closer look. In this DCS TeleBriefing, Research Director Drue Reeves will define the cloud, its characteristics, and layout a tiered architecture that brings the cloud into perspective.

IBM Lotusphere 2009: Resonating Beyond the IBM Faithful?

Collaboration and Content Strategies

February, 2009 -- For 2009, two of the major themes of collaboration and content technologies are cutting costs and social networking in the enterprise. In this TeleBriefing, the Burton Group CCS team will take a hard look at IBM’s strategy and technologies (as described at Lotusphere 2009) in relation to these themes.

• Does Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5 hit the mark in helping enterprises with expensive utility of e-mail?
• Will Sametime provide cost cutting advantages with a mature unified communications solution?
• How are IBM’s three collaboration software-as-a-service offerings doing and will they succeed?
• Does IBM have what it takes to deliver enterprise social networking?
• Is Symphony a viable productivity suite?
• Can IBM’s portals and mashups technologies make a critical difference for the enterprise this year?

As enterprises grapple with the economics of collaboration technologies in 2009, we examine IBM’s efforts to please their existing customers and to attract new customers. For enterprises needing new solutions in 2009, this CCS TeleBriefing will help you determine what IBM technologies should be on your short list. For enterprises with IBM collaboration technologies, this CCS TeleBriefing will help you maximize your investments and plan for the future.